(The Center Square) – A pair of Wisconsin legislators have introduced a new bill that would create a felony offense of grooming with increased punishment if the grooming comes from a person in a position of authority, the child has a known disability or the crime impacts multiple minors.
The bill from Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, and Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, comes after an investigation from the Capital Times about the state investigations into 200 cases of sexual misconduct and grooming in Wisconsin schools since 2018 along with a Kenosha case of a teacher that led to 12 misdemeanors and sentence of 450 days in jail and three years of probation.
“Whether it’s a teacher, a coach, or a mentor – we must ensure that adults who exploit their positions of trust to manipulate and prey upon children face real accountability under the law,” Nedweski said in a statement. “This bill gives our partners in law enforcement the clear legal tools necessary to prosecute these predators and provide victims and families with the justice they deserve.”
The lawmakers said the bill language drew from prior grooming laws in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Texas.
The bill defines grooming as “a course of conduct, pattern of behavior, or series of acts with the intention to condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse or sexual contact or for the purpose of producing, distributing, or possessing depictions of the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
The bill provides examples of the conduct.
The conduct of Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction in teacher’s license investigations was the subject of an assembly committee hearing on the matter and will also be part of a Senate Committee Education hearing at 1 p.m. Tuesday and the start of an audit from the Joint Legislative Audit Committee where DPI Superintendent Jill Underly is expected to be present at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
“Superintendent Underly and DPI failed at their most basic oversight role: to ensure our kids are safe at school,” Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, told The Center Square. “Recent reporting revealed a significant lack of accountability in how DPI tracks teachers and school officials accused of sexual misconduct with children.
“This audit will attempt to bring to light what DPI has tried to hide, and ensure we can keep Wisconsin’s students safe from predators at school.”
The grooming bill does not have a committee public hearing date at this point.
“This critically important piece of legislation will protect our state’s most important and vulnerable assets – our children,” James said in a statement. “While I am proud to join my colleagues in authoring this bill, I am disgusted by the stories that have made legislation like this so necessary. It has become clear to me, the Governor, and to my fellow legislators that Wisconsin needs a statutory definition for grooming.”
